Washington • With 16 days left in a political career that spanned a half-century, President Joe Biden on Saturday conferred one of the nation’s highest honors on core members of the political, financial and celebrity establishment of which he has long been a part.
Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 18 people, including some of the brightest lights of the old guard that President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to tear down. In doing so, the 82-year-old president is sending an unmistakable message of support for a democratic order he has said is threatened by Trump’s reelection.
“Let’s remember, our sacred effort continues, and to keep going, as my mother would say, we have to keep the faith,” he told the crowd at the White House at the end of the ceremony.
Among those receiving the award were Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state whom Trump threatened to jail; Robert F. Kennedy, the assassinated senator whose son has embraced Trump; and George Romney, the late father of former Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who repeatedly rejected Trump’s actions and philosophy. The younger Romney accepted the award Saturday. Kennedy’s medal was accepted by his daughter, Kathleen.
As many presidents have done with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Biden also honored some of his party’s most prolific fundraisers, including the man who looms largest of all among Democratic donors — George Soros, a liberal activist billionaire whom Republicans have cast as the party’s evil puppet master.
They also included the media executive and cultural figure Anna Wintour, who put the first lady, Jill Biden, on the cover of Vogue twice in the past four years while spurning Melania Trump during her husband’s presidency.
Biden also recognized artists, musicians, sports figures, philanthropists and others who have contributed to society, including singer Bono, actor Michael J. Fox, basketball legend Magic Johnson and the investor David M. Rubenstein.
The 19th person picked to receive the award — soccer megastar Lionel Messi — did not attend because of a scheduling conflict, according to the White House.
